Sunshine Week

A week dedicated to government transparency launches with announcement of new Michigan group

Monday, March 11 — The Lansing City Council’s recent closed
session meetings to discuss a confidential legal opinion about a Council
member’s broken computer is a perfect example of why we need Sunshine Week.

For weeks, local media struggled to uncover why exactly the
body was meeting in closed session. Questions to the Council and the City Attorney’s
Office — and requests for documents — about why the body was meeting in secret
were denied.

Sunshine Week is a national initiative that pushes for
transparency and freedom of information from public entities like schools and
all levels of government. It starts today and lasts through the week.

The program started in Florida in 2002, but has since spread
across the country to help spark conversations about the importance of the
Freedom of Information and Open Meetings acts — two key tools in keeping government
accountable.

In Michigan, Sunshine Week is marked by the launch of the
Michigan Coalition for Open Government. The group provides funding for
journalists and citizens to help fight legal battles when governments fail to
comply with the Open Meetings Act and the Freedom of Information Act. The group
also seeks to continue dialog and educational opportunities about the
importance of openness in government.

According to a press release from the organization, Michigan
could use the help:

“Michigan received
an overall grade of ‘F’ and ranked 44th out of the 50 states in a
2012 state integrity investigation by the Center for Public Integrity, Global
Integrity and Public Radio International. It flunked in the categories of
executive accountability, judicial accountability, political financing,
legislative accountability, lobbying disclosure, ethics enforcement agencies,
and redistricting, among others, and got a ‘D’ for public access to
information.”

It’s no secret that the news industry is strapped for cash
these days. Financial woes have forced media outlets to cut both staff and
circulation. So it comes as no surprise that most organizations don’t have the
financial wherewithal to have lengthy court battles over public documents and
records. But with the help of a $2 million grant from the Knight Foundation, MiCOG
can help both journalists and regular citizens tango with public entities in
court when they’re not forthcoming with public information.

“Citizens and
journalists are having greater difficulty obtaining public documents from
government agencies, deterred by long delays in responses and high fees,” MiCOG
President Jane Briggs-Bunting said in a statement. “Most individuals and
smaller news organizations don’t have the resources to mount legal challenges.
MiCOG can help with that.”

Anyone can join the coalition for a yearly fee. Some of the
founding groups of the coalition include the Mid-Michigan and Detroit chapters
of the Society of Professional Journalists and the Michigan State University College of Law First Amendment Law Clinic.